Restaurant Review: Dean’s Is Not Your Average Pub
Dean's, a new British-inspired restaurant in SoHo from the team behind King, offers boldly traditional and unapologetically rustic dishes with a focus on rich, comforting flavors. The menu features standout items like stargazy pie and boiled ham, emphasizing hearty, brown-toned classics executed with confidence. While the space is stylish and inviting, vegetarians may find limited options beyond a few inventive dishes.
- ▪Dean's is located in SoHo and shares a wall with the restaurant King, run by chefs Jess Shadbolt and Annie Shi.
- ▪The stargazy pie, a Cornish specialty, features fish heads and tails protruding from the crust and contains a creamy fish and potato filling.
- ▪The menu includes notable dishes such as boiled ham with parsley bechamel, pork scratchings, and a vegetarian coronation chicken salad, though meatless options are limited.
- ▪Desserts vary in quality, with the steamed ginger pudding praised as exceptional and the lemon posset described as grainy.
- ▪The restaurant embraces a 'jolie-laide' aesthetic, where unattractive menu descriptions often signal deeply satisfying dishes.
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The Food SceneDean’s Is Not Your Average PubA new downtown restaurant from the team behind King serves proudly jolie-laide English classics, beautifully.By Helen RosnerMay 17, 2026Dean’s specializes in unapologetically British dishes such as a fish-forward Cornwall specialty called stargazy pie.Photographs by Clark Hodgin for The New YorkerSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyThe stargazy pie at Dean’s—a new British-ish, pub-ish restaurant on the edge of SoHo—is, in a word, freaky. The head of a fish, cooked and glossy gray, emerges from a latticed crust, regarding the ceiling with an unnerving, dull-eyed serenity. A tail protrudes, too, at an opposite angle, giving the impression of a flexed body hidden beneath the surface of the pastry sea.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The New Yorker.
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